Dr. Foqan Uddin Ahmed :
A house is a place where a man lives. A house can be used for other purposes, but usually housing means to provide dwelling place to men. Housing is one of the basic needs of men. A man needs a house to keep his body and soul together. We live in houses in order to protect ourselves from heat and cold. Houses also protect us from rain and storm. Some people need houses to protect themselves from floods and wild animals as well. Houses keep us comfortable and happy. But the irony is that a large number of people of Bangladesh have no house of their own.
In Bangladesh all houses are not alike. There are houses of different sizes and shapes here. Some are big, some are small. Some are long and narrow while others are square of round. Some houses have only one room, some have many. The roofs of some houses are flat while those of other houses are sloppy. People make the roofs sloping in order to let rain water run away quickly.
In Bangladesh, houses are made from different things. Here people build their houses with whatever things they can get easily.
In villages, most people build their houses with bamboo. rope, straw and mud. The richer section of people build houses of corrugated iron, wood, nails and screws. In towns and cities people build houses of corrugated iron sheet or bricks. In order to build a brick house one needs bricks, cement, sand, concrete and iron rods.
In Chittagong Hill Tracts people houses of bamboo, wood and stone. In low-lying areas some people build their houses on high platforms to protect themselves from floods. Some people live in tents and in boats too. Tents and boats serve here as their houses.
The first thing that is needed to build a house is money. But the greater part of our people are poor and many of them have not the money to build houses to live in. Moreover, many poor people are landless. They have no land where to build houses. So, a certain percentage of our population are not only ill-fed and ill-clad but also homeless.
To provide dwelling houses to vast a population has become a Herculean task which defines all attempts at solution. Secondly, flood visits our country almost every year.
Flood water washes away or damages a lot of houses every year. The flood of 1988 alone fully devastated 13 lakh houses and partly damaged 25 lakh housed. Thirdly, many people living by the side of the mighty Padma, the Meghna and the Jamuna lose their houses to the strong current and waves of these rivers. In top of this, a good lot of people turn homeless owing to cyclone, storm and tidal bore. Fourthly, as a result of enormous consumption of firewood for cooking, our forests are losing so many of their trees that there is an acute shortage of wood and timber for house building purpose. Fifthly, the problem has become more acute in urban areas. Service-holders spend a major portion of their earnings for accommodation purpose. A good number of homeless people live in make-shift slums, in the streets, railway stations and in railway wagons. Last of all, the number of houses in Bangladesh falls for short of what we actually need. On an average, six people live in a house and most of the houses have only one room. It is extremely harmful for people’s health to live in a crowded room.
Of late our Government have taken a number of measures to ease the acute housing problem of the country. The establishments of a good number of cluster villages in various thanas have provided dwelling houses to a considerable number of landless and homeless families. Urban areas an ambitious project to build multi-storied houses to give accommodation to families of small means is being carried out.
Housing problem is the burning problem for Bangladesh and calls for immediate solution. If all the citizens of the country are not provided with necessary shelter, our efforts for national development will prove futile. Proper planning for housing both in the towns and villages may mitigate this problem.
The growing population in big cities like Dhaka, Chittagong, Khulna has become a vulnerable issue for housing. So the problems needs to be the addressed.
On cooperative housing concept began high rise Apartment/Flat may be built with the provision of amusement park, playground, garden, community center, library, auditorium hall, cultural hall etc. In our country there are developers and many housing companies who are involved with this cooperative housing. Flat owners housing cooperative, different developer companies all together there are as many as to 45 cooperatives which are under command and control of Bangladesh cooperative housing federation presently which is named as REHAB.
This cooperative ensures building houses, apartment, low cost houses with the involvement of minimum expenditure. Its area of responsibility is nation wide. This federation and institutions like REHAB needs to empowered with Govt. cooperation. If there is an in built relationship in between ministry and federation it will be helpful for our country. Again if thinks are regulated by strong rules/policy undoubtedly transparency and accountability will prevail and corruption will be uprooted from this sector.
To improve the living standard, the cooperative housing concept may introduce a new era to the people of Bangladesh. The real estate companies should strictly maintain quality. The govt. should also supervise and regulate the activities of the housing cooperatives. Thus we can make more housing cooperatives- friendly Bangladesh and housing problem will be solved both in urban and rural areas.
A house is a place where a man lives. A house can be used for other purposes, but usually housing means to provide dwelling place to men. Housing is one of the basic needs of men. A man needs a house to keep his body and soul together. We live in houses in order to protect ourselves from heat and cold. Houses also protect us from rain and storm. Some people need houses to protect themselves from floods and wild animals as well. Houses keep us comfortable and happy. But the irony is that a large number of people of Bangladesh have no house of their own.
In Bangladesh all houses are not alike. There are houses of different sizes and shapes here. Some are big, some are small. Some are long and narrow while others are square of round. Some houses have only one room, some have many. The roofs of some houses are flat while those of other houses are sloppy. People make the roofs sloping in order to let rain water run away quickly.
In Bangladesh, houses are made from different things. Here people build their houses with whatever things they can get easily.
In villages, most people build their houses with bamboo. rope, straw and mud. The richer section of people build houses of corrugated iron, wood, nails and screws. In towns and cities people build houses of corrugated iron sheet or bricks. In order to build a brick house one needs bricks, cement, sand, concrete and iron rods.
In Chittagong Hill Tracts people houses of bamboo, wood and stone. In low-lying areas some people build their houses on high platforms to protect themselves from floods. Some people live in tents and in boats too. Tents and boats serve here as their houses.
The first thing that is needed to build a house is money. But the greater part of our people are poor and many of them have not the money to build houses to live in. Moreover, many poor people are landless. They have no land where to build houses. So, a certain percentage of our population are not only ill-fed and ill-clad but also homeless.
To provide dwelling houses to vast a population has become a Herculean task which defines all attempts at solution. Secondly, flood visits our country almost every year.
Flood water washes away or damages a lot of houses every year. The flood of 1988 alone fully devastated 13 lakh houses and partly damaged 25 lakh housed. Thirdly, many people living by the side of the mighty Padma, the Meghna and the Jamuna lose their houses to the strong current and waves of these rivers. In top of this, a good lot of people turn homeless owing to cyclone, storm and tidal bore. Fourthly, as a result of enormous consumption of firewood for cooking, our forests are losing so many of their trees that there is an acute shortage of wood and timber for house building purpose. Fifthly, the problem has become more acute in urban areas. Service-holders spend a major portion of their earnings for accommodation purpose. A good number of homeless people live in make-shift slums, in the streets, railway stations and in railway wagons. Last of all, the number of houses in Bangladesh falls for short of what we actually need. On an average, six people live in a house and most of the houses have only one room. It is extremely harmful for people’s health to live in a crowded room.
Of late our Government have taken a number of measures to ease the acute housing problem of the country. The establishments of a good number of cluster villages in various thanas have provided dwelling houses to a considerable number of landless and homeless families. Urban areas an ambitious project to build multi-storied houses to give accommodation to families of small means is being carried out.
Housing problem is the burning problem for Bangladesh and calls for immediate solution. If all the citizens of the country are not provided with necessary shelter, our efforts for national development will prove futile. Proper planning for housing both in the towns and villages may mitigate this problem.
The growing population in big cities like Dhaka, Chittagong, Khulna has become a vulnerable issue for housing. So the problems needs to be the addressed.
On cooperative housing concept began high rise Apartment/Flat may be built with the provision of amusement park, playground, garden, community center, library, auditorium hall, cultural hall etc. In our country there are developers and many housing companies who are involved with this cooperative housing. Flat owners housing cooperative, different developer companies all together there are as many as to 45 cooperatives which are under command and control of Bangladesh cooperative housing federation presently which is named as REHAB.
This cooperative ensures building houses, apartment, low cost houses with the involvement of minimum expenditure. Its area of responsibility is nation wide. This federation and institutions like REHAB needs to empowered with Govt. cooperation. If there is an in built relationship in between ministry and federation it will be helpful for our country. Again if thinks are regulated by strong rules/policy undoubtedly transparency and accountability will prevail and corruption will be uprooted from this sector.
To improve the living standard, the cooperative housing concept may introduce a new era to the people of Bangladesh. The real estate companies should strictly maintain quality. The govt. should also supervise and regulate the activities of the housing cooperatives. Thus we can make more housing cooperatives- friendly Bangladesh and housing problem will be solved both in urban and rural areas.
